About Bob Hurley

Family: Married to wife Shelley for 38 years; three children, 10 grandchildren.

Favorite surf spot: "It changes every day. As long as I'm with my family, where ever they are, that's my favorite spot."

Other hobbies: Hot yoga

Habits: Always wears a suit on Sunday for church, even when he attends a surf contest after services.

Heath: Juicing. "I've joined the juicing trend."

Guilty pleasure: Tortilla chips

Quote: "I think whether you have faith or not, trying to figure out your destiny is a good thing. Some people don't believe in destiny, and that they figure all that stuff out. I don't think I'm that smart."

Bob Hurley wrestled with the biggest decision of his career.

Should he continue his role as the North America licensee for Billabong, a company he and partners brought to the U.S. and grew into a $100 million business? Or should he start from scratch to bring something fresh to the surf industry – with the fate of more than 150 workers in his hands.

Hurley chose to strike out in a new direction and in 1999 launched his eponymous brand.

"It was very challenging, but it didn't feel like it to me because it felt like destiny," the 57-year-old Hurley said. "It just seemed like it had to happen, it was meant to be."

Destiny. It's a word that comes up frequently in a conversation with Hurley, founder of Hurley International and one of the surf industry's most successful entrepreneurs.

With recent announcement that parent company Nike has shifted its surf team to Hurley – creating a strong presence among the world's best surfers on the ASP World Tour – the Costa Mesa company likely will evolve even more in the near future.

"We'd like to be the best surf company that has ever existed," said Hurley, who lives in Newport Beach and surfs regularly. "And there have been some great ones."

Hurley sat down with the Register to talk about his start in the surf world, his challenges along the way and the future of the company.

Q. How did you get started in the surf industry?

A. I begged my way into a job at Wind and Sea Surf Shop. One thing I really wanted to do was make boards. I liked trying to figure out what people wanted and tried to give it to them. The satisfaction of giving a board to someone is so neat. It's instant gratification. You can look at it and think 'Wow, I made that.' But then if it doesn't work, it bums you out. You have to learn how to deal with rejection.

Q. But you ended up starting a pretty successful business, right?

A. It was my full time job for about 10 years. I started Hurley Surfboards in early 80s. There was a transition in the market. The culture was shifting so fast, and I happened to embrace the new. I liked punk rock, all my friends were in the bands, I liked the radical stuff. It was just a unique time, when everything changed. I was able to participate in that movement. It was really hard to make money, but I was successful. I was always backlogged six months.

Q. How did you transition into surf wear?

A. A few friends knew about this company called Billabong in Australia. I liked the shorts because they were long, and everyone liked short shorts at the time. I tried to import those shorts from Australia – and the owner would never get back to me. My grand vision for the brand was to put them in the store. Then one day this guy Gordon (Merchant) from Billabong showed up at my shop. They were tiny at the time. He said, 'If you want to buy Billabong shorts, you have to make it worthwhile to me. I'll sell you 3,000, they are $9 each.' So $27,000 – no worries, I'll do that. I had no idea, no plan. We didn't have a penny. Not a penny for baby-sitting, couldn't go to the movies, couldn't get groceries. It just seemed like the right thing to do, and that's how we always made our business decisions. So then, we made a deal. I had to beg my family and friends for money. For $5,000 you could buy 4 percent of this company I concocted. We got $45,000 together. We got those shorts, sold them, got more and sold them. We worked out of garages at night to ship orders.

Q. How successful did Billabong become?

A. The surfboard market was changing, the apparel market was changing. The old breed – OP, Lightning Bolt – were dying out, just grinding to a halt. So anyone who had new stuff, everyone just wanted it. I had a waiting list of people. We didn't really have a vision that it could be big. Our 10-year plan was to do $1.7 million in sales. Year 1 we did $80,000, year 2 we did $300,000, then next year we did $700,000 and then we did $3 million. It was very organic.

Q. With such a successful venture, why did you spin off to create Hurley?

A. We had the Billabong license for 16 years. Our last year, we were looking to do about $100 million. It was an incredible ride; we had no idea that could happen. It seemed like destiny. At the time, it was hard to say how or why (the change), it just seemed like something we had to do. It wasn't a plan to have our own company. Or to make more money. It became important to do what we were passionate about. Billabong's saying at the time was "Only a surfer knows the feeling." We realized other people in the world are really important too, not just surfers. We realized that if surfing is so beautiful, you don't have to act like you are a surfer all the time, you don't have to make everyone feel like an outcast because they don't surf. We didn't like the exclusive nature of the surf industry.

Bob Hurley, founder of Hurley International, sits in an art installation at the company's headquarters in Costa Mesa by James "Dalek" Marshall. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
In the early days, Bob Hurley's surfboard-shaping business kept him busy in the years before he created Hurley International. PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB HURLEY
Bob Hurley at age 20, after he started shaping surfboards. Hurley became one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the surf industry after creating Hurley International. PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB HURLEY
Bob Hurley, founder of Hurley International, with some surfboards at the headquarters in Costa Mesa. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Bob Hurley, founder of Hurley International, in front of a wall of employee photos at the company's headquarters in Costa Mesa. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Bob Hurley, founder of Hurley International, is seen at the headquarters in Costa Mesa with a photo of a crowd gathered at the Huntington Beach Pier. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Bob Hurley, founder of Hurley International, in a shaping room at the company's headquarters in Costa Mesa. MARK RIGHTMIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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